Dear Lawrence,
If a manufacturer, because of their new “updated features” causes their earlier products, which are still quite adequate for the functions which they were purchased by their owner to provide, to become unusable for the earlier functions through using the “updates” (or lack thereof) as a way to eliminate the usefulness of the earlier product for ANY purpose at all, NOT just the “new features”, I call that planned obsolescence. There are plenty of folks who would be just fine with their old ipods, ipads, and iphones if they worked as purchased. We do not all need or want every new feature. I have watched quite a pile of ipads become useless because of the lack of updates. App creators also make it impossible for the devices to function as they used to because of their updates piggybacking on the Apple updates. Without the Apple update, the app becomes useless. Ebay, Roomba, etc. only work on a couple of my ipads anymore because of that.
To bring up an example of a Prius is a bit of a laugh- their batteries are toast in 5 years no matter how many miles you get on a charge. They ARE the embodiment of planned obsolescence. Cars used to last generations- I myself own a 1972 BMW and a 1986 Mercedes SL, both which run like scalded dogs. I doubt if any Prius will ever get to be THAT old.
And as far as androids, I had been loyal to Apple since my first bubble shaped blue desktop, so I wouldn’t know. I will have to take your word on that. And as far as a 1984 IBM- It should still be able to function as designed. I have a 1987 Leading Edge (early IBM clone), and it was not designed for windows. I never asked that of it. But it runs perfectly fine as long as you are used to DOS, text only, and floppies.
To conclude, when the original functions of an item are negated on purpose by a manufacturer under the guise of an improvement which requires “newer hardware”- thereby diminishing/ ultimately destroying the prior functionality of the item’s “older hardware”- that IS PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. If Apple actually had confidence in their ability to innovate adequately, they would have plenty of early adopters and then hordes of followers running towards each piece of new novel hardware with it’s attractive bells and whistles without creating stacks of prematurely obsolete electronic debris in order to increase sales.
Let the old, simpler, electronics to at least function as designed until the consumers tire of them. Or how about allowing them to function long enough they can be at least donated to another who would be grateful to have basic connectivity. Why fill landfills for no reason?
